FTSE:5,697.72 (+23.34 ) Mid-250:11,528.25 (+74.53) Small Cap:3,239.41 (+18.03)

STRONG MINERS propped up Britain’s top shares yesterday, but overall sentiment was downbeat on concerns over the Italian banking sector and the passage of a Greek austerity plan.

British stocks rallied, with the benchmark FTSE 100 Index rebounding from a three-month low, after European Union leaders vowed to support Greece.

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto climbed more than 2 per cent as mining companies across Europe advanced.

The FTSE 100 climbed 0.4 per cent at the close, limiting a fifth straight week of losses. The FTSE All-Share Index gained 0.5 per cent.

Banks came under pressure on further concern over Europe’s debt woe after a brief suspension in the trading of Italian banks UniCredit and Intesa Sanpaolo after their shares hit the daily downward limit.

Lloyds Banking Group led the market lower, off 4.1 per cent, followed by Royal Bank of Scotland, down 3 per cent and Barclays, which shed 2.5 per cent.

Rolls-Royce firmed 3.2 per cent after the company, alongside Daimler, secured 94 per cent of shares in Tognum.

They had raised their offer for the diesel engine maker last month to €3.4 billion, with the two carmakers hoping to tap into a global growth market worth more than $40 billion a year.

British stocks consolidated their gains after German business confidence unexpectedly improved in June, suggesting Europe’s largest economy is weathering the region’s worsening sovereign-debt crisis and slowing global growth.

Economists had forecast a drop.

Rio Tinto rallied 2.2 per cent to 4,247.5 pence and BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company, advanced 2.5 per cent to 2,300.5 pence.

Berkeley Group Holdings rallied 11 per cent to 1,254 pence, posting the biggest gain on the FTSE 250 Index

Britain’s largest homebuilder by market value said annual profit climbed 19 per cent as the company sold more homes at higher prices.

Berkeley also said it would pay shareholders dividends of £1.7 billion over the next decade.

RAB Capital soared 18 per cent to 9.6 pence as the London-based hedge fund proposed that it delists, offering shareholders 10 pence cash a share or shares in a new company. – (Bloomberg/Reuters)